Review: Dragonfire
Score:
69%
Version Reviewed: 1.x
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Dragonfire is a graphical role playing game. Basically the story is that you have been taken from your world to defeat the evil dragon in another.
Installation is simple and works well upon running you are presented with the following menu.
Selecting start displays the initial story spiel over a number of screens. These can be skipped by pressing the key. After this the main game loads. Unfortunately this takes an age and is probably the most annoying aspect of the game.
Upon loading you are presented with the display area with your character in the middle of the central part of the screen, He's the handsome fellow above with the blue cape. The left hand third of the screen does not do much apart from look pretty. The right-hand side show you current status with Hit Points (hp), Spell Points (sp), Money, Healing Potions. The three boxes at the bottom show you currently equipped Weapon, Armour and Shield but at this stage all you have is a small sword. The first thing you need to do is go to the village. Movement is simple you just uses the direction pad to move your character around the screen.
There are a number off small subplots within the game. These are discovered by approaching people who if they have anything interesting to say will do so in a screen as shown above. These tasks tend to be of the 'Kill all the bugs', 'deliver this item' type of thing. They mainly give you a extra purpose for wandering around and killing everything in site. Upon completing a quest you are given a reward of experience points and objects or gold.
Your most common activity apart from wandering about the place, is killing the numerous creature that inhabit this world. Upon approaching or being approached by an enemy creature the above screen will be displayed. Combat is turn based and you can either attack with a weapon or cast a spell. You can even try and run away (but you wouldn't want to do that would you?). Weapons and spells can be changed during combat. Don't forget, you can also Quaff potions instead of attacking if you need some more health or spell points. All in all this is a simple battle system and it works very well. Once you enemy is defeated, he will normally leave some gold or other useful object behind for you to pick up. Also in you travels keep a look out for chests as these often have gold and other goodies hidden within. There is a good development curve for your character. Experience points means higher character levels so you can tackle bigger monsters. The eventual aim is that you will be strong enough to defeat the dragon. The world is split into distinctive areas Bugworld, Dwarfworld, Amazonworld, etc you will soon find out if you have strayed into one too powerful for you character.
The reason for collecting all this gold is that you can spend it in one of the shops that are to be found in the villages. The above screen shows you what is available for sale in the shop. You must have a spellbook before you can cast spells so make this one of you first purchases. Its also a good idea to make sure you have plenty of health potions. The above screen is also very similar to your own inventory screen.
Another essential purchase is a map from the cartographer. This is very useful for getting your bearings.
You also have access to a Statistics screen which shows how your character is doing. Pressing escape at any time takes you to the menu screen to allow you to save your position. However only one save is allowed, I would have liked more.
Their is no sound in this game but I don't think that makes much difference to this type of game. I normally switch off sounds on my 9210 games anyway. This is not a very taxing game and it just takes time and patience to complete it. All in all I really liked this game, I just wish it could have been a bit bigger as I completed it in a few days.
Reviewed by Dazler Dazler at